January 28, 2016

Every year, for as long as I can remember, the Soil Conservation District in my area has hosted a spring tree sale. Nowadays the soil part of their name is gone and are now known as the Conservation District because they are involved in so much more than controlling soil erosion.

Nearly every county in Michigan has its own Conservation District and just about every district holds some kind of plant sale. The plant selections may vary slightly from district to district but they all offer plants used for conserving soil and encouraging wildlife.

At these sales you can order conifers like spruce, pine and fir. Common deciduous trees like oaks, maples and cherry are available as well as the lesser known hackberry, persimmon and others.

Each district decides for itself which plants to sell but often you’ll find shrubs such as American plum, elderberry, cranberry, currents, hazelnuts and other varieties.

Native grasses and perennials are offered by some districts. At those sales you can buy big or little bluestem, indian grass, switchgrass and milkweeds.

Tree sales are a major source of funds that go toward conservation projects in the local districts. To find a Conservation District in Michigan, click on this link. Do it soon because plants often sell out early.

September 10, 2015

This week while going through some items in a storage shed, I came across a beautiful dried ball of mud inside an antique trunk. It was the nest of a wasp known as a mud dauber.

When we think of wasp nests, usually the first thing that comes to mind is the papery nest of the paper wasp or the football-shaped nest of hornets. Mud daubers build their nests out of mud. There is plenty of mud for the wasps this summer because of all the rain we been having.

Mud daubers are not social insects like paper wasps and the others. Instead, they spend their lives as single, solitary insects. They do everything by themselves including, building a nest, laying eggs and collecting food for their young.

There are many different species of mud daubers in Michigan, this one is called the “black and yellow mud dauber”.

The adults look similar to the more common social wasps but are larger and have exaggerated features like the thread-like connection between their abdomen and thorax.

The female mud dauber builds the nest by collecting mud along the edge of puddles. Using her mouth parts, she rolls the mud into a ball then lifts it into the air and carries it to the nesting site. There she adds the mud to her nest, building rooms or cells for her young. Each cell is big enough for one young mud dauber.

While the female is away from the nest gathering mud or foraging for food, she temporarily closes the entrance to her nest to keep predators away from her young. During that time, the daubers are in the larval stage of their life cycle.

The mosaic pattern on this mud dauber nest is from the different types of mud that the wasp collected. Here you can readily see that the entrance is open.

The female mud dauber is working on expanding her nest. Note that the entrance is closed. So far, the nest is about four inches long.

The female also packs away food for the developing larvae by placing insects or spiders into each cell so the larva has enough food in its cell to carry it through its growing stage. Some types of mud daubers — like the black and yellow — only prey on spiders while others prefer caterpillars or other insects.

The prey is only for the young though. The adults feed on nectar, honeydew from aphids or other sugary liquids. Sometimes you can spot them sipping sugar water from hummingbird feeders.

Unlike other wasps and hornets, mud daubers don’t defend their nests. They are not aggressive and rarely sting. Although if you try hard enough you can sometimes provoke one into stinging you.

According to one university website, some species “sing” while building their nest! Mine didn’t seem to be in a singing mood when I found her.

Another interesting behavior of mud dauber is their sleeping habits. They don’t sleep on their nest at night as you would expect. Instead, they fly each evening to the same protected area away from the nest and spend the night there snuggled under branches or leaves.

They are generally considered beneficial insects because they eat other insects. You could argue that the spider-eaters are not very beneficial because spiders eat insects too — that is unless you hate spiders.

Most of the time we don’t notice the daubers until they build a nest somewhere where we don’t want it. Some people destroy the nest as soon as they find them. There seems to be a small industry built around exterminating mud daubers and getting rid of their nests. I prefer to let leave them alone and let them go about their business.

April 1, 2014

There’s a new product out on the market that make’s you want to say: ” Why didn’t I think of that!”

The scientists at a bio-tech company called Genetic Dynamics, have come up with an easy way to grow mushrooms from seed at home.

Head researcher, Dr. Fred Kim, said: ” Nearly everyone I know already has some kind of fungus growing in their refrigerator. Our research team decided to take advantage of that fact”.

Using a combination of conventional plant breeding and cutting edge DNA technology, the scientists created a mushroom that will grow under conditions found in a typical refrigerator.

The new variety called ” Shrooms” uses any leftover food as a substrate to grow on. Dr. Kim noted: “The older and more forgotten the leftovers are, the better the mushrooms grow”.

I grew my shrooms on what I think is leftover mashed potatoes.

Walter Tupper, the Executive Chef at Top O’ the Cave Restraint in Grosse Point Farms, Michigan, uses them almost exclusively in dishes calling for mushrooms. “They have a taste reminiscent of baby portabellas. We obtain ours from a local grower.” he says.

I was able to get a hold of a packet of seeds to try out. I have to admit they are very easy to grow and tasty too!

November 10, 2010

Even though things are slowing down to a crawl in the garden after the frost, fall can still be a very busy time of the year for the die-hard gardener. In addition to all of the garden and yard clean-up there’s still plenty of planting to do especially if you look forward to flowers in the early spring.

The only way to get Tulips and other spring flowering bulbs to bloom in your garden is to plant them right now. Although the choice may be more limited than earlier in the fall, plenty of bulbs are still available in garden centers.

Back when I was gardening professionally I needed to get my bulb order in by July first each year. A lot of planning went into deciding just how many of each variety would be planted and into which garden. So in July, during the busiest time of the regular growing season, I was compelled to come up with a plan about how the garden would look in April.

Since I would plant between 15,000 and 20,000 bulbs a year, my order would be placed with other large orders of bulbs in the summer. Bulb growers in Holland needed to know ahead of time how many bulbs they would have to harvest and ship to the USA. Your local garden center probably placed their order at that time as well.

The bulb planting season actually starts earlier in October. The idea is to get the bulbs into the ground so that they will have time to develop a good root system before winter. You can imagine that with 20,000 bulbs to plant I often was planting well into November and even sometimes into early December. Most gardeners don’t have that excuse and should get their planting done soon.

Bulbs look best planted in clusters rather than in straight lines or as single plants. If you can afford it, large drifts of single varieties make an impressive sight in the spring. You don’t need to plant thousands of bulbs to make an impression, even a small planting near the house can be a real joy after a long winter.

Eye-catching Drift of Grape Hyacinths.

Crocus, Tulips, Daffodils and Hyacinths are the most common spring bulbs that are planted therefore are the most commonly available. Others you might find include Muscari, Anenomes, Snowdrops, Scilla, Allium and others. When buying your bulbs look for ones that are free from mold, discoloration or other signs of rot. Also a healthy bulb will feel heavier in your hand than one that has started to deteriorate.

Larger sized bulbs such as Daffodils and Tulips are planted deeper into the ground than the small bulbs such as Crocus and Muscari. The small bulbs are planted into a hole that is about three inches deep, while the larger bulbs are planted twice that depth. Usually detailed planting information is available for each variety when you purchase your bulbs. Any fertile garden bed will support the growth and development of spring bulbs.

If you never have planted bulbs before, to get you started I have scanned a leaflet from the US Department of Agriculture that describes how to plant bulbs. It contains more detail than I can present here in this blog. Take the time to plant some bulbs this fall then when spring rolls around you’ll be glad you did.